Rich pickings and rewards in the exclusive Dail 'clubs'
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In California, the OC, or Orange County, is often portrayed as an affluent location. In Leinster House, the initials OC stand for Oireachtas Committee or the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission.
Either way, the effect is still the same -- a lucrative and exclusive club. The payments to those on those committees makes up €900,000 worth of the €20 million the taxpayer pays to our TDs in salaries this year.
Serving TDs pick up €19,058 in pensionable pay on top of their basic salary for becoming chairmen of one of the 23 committees now in place.
And every committee needs a vice-chairman on €9,747 and a convenor on €6,072.
Nothing wrong with Oireachtas committees, but by creating so many of them the Government has actually neutered their potency.
Fianna Fail's Noel O'Flynn and Fine Gael's Michael Noonan stand out as the most effective of the chairmen from the last session from 2002 to 2007.
Although not averse to controversy, O'Flynn ensured ministers and public bodies were put under scrutiny and actually served as a forum for cross-party co-operation as chairman of the Oireachtas Communications Committee.
Aside from a trademark edge and incisive questioning, Noonan brought a new level of professionalism to the Dail Public Accounts Committee.
The Taoiseach set up these committees, but the Government itself often serves to undermine their credibility.
Before Christmas, the schools water charges bill was the most pressing concern. Interested parties and senior civil servants from the departments of education and environment attended a showdown meeting of the Oireachtas education committee to debate the matter.
Ten minutes after the committee meeting ended, it transpired the Cabinet had made a decision to defer the payments before the committee meeting even started.
Nobody bothered to tell the committee though, so their meeting was a waste of time.
Although masked in noble aspiration, the unmistakable impression from the lengthy list of overlapping committees is that the facility is seen by Bertie Ahern as a means of compensating those who don't make the junior minister ranks.
All of which leads on to another core point about why the country needs so many ministers of state. On top of the 15 Cabinet ministers, there are another 20 junior ministers of various shapes and sizes.
To cover over the loss of Ireland's permanent European Commissioner, an argument being mooted by the Government in the EU reform treaty debate is that the slimmed-down European Commission will be a leaner machine, able to operate more efficiently. Coming from an administration with three ministers now in charge of fish and five junior ministers attached to some department, the point rings hollow.
The system of perks payments for our TDs is seriously unfair and fails to take account of the diligent work undertaken by frontbench spokespersons. By any objective analysis, Joan Burton would probably stand out as the outstanding TD of the last Dail term.
Labour's TD for Dublin West covered all the bases required of a Dail deputy on a national and local level.
Apart from a long-service payment, she doesn't get any additional salary for her endeavours. Financially speaking, she'd be better off taking up the chair of an Oireachtas committee.
And why do members of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the body responsible for running Leinster House, get showered with the largesse of an extra €19,058 each, while opposition frontbench spokespersons in key portfolios get no extra remuneration?
Because they're worth it ...
